Archive for the 'Lawrence Arabia' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

What is it about Crowded House shows in Southern California that they can be so consistently invigorating yet often get so hampered by potential derailments and poor locations?

Going back as far as the late '80s, when the beloved Down Under trio -- New Zealander Neil Finn (one of the world's finest tunesmiths), supple bassist Nick Seymour and the late drummer Paul Hester (both from Australia) -- were still trying to cut it as commercially viable hit-makers they never really became, the group's appearances have been unpredictably spotty. Yet, apart from one particularly desultory night at the Wiltern toward the end of their original run, rarely has trouble with their performances had anything to do with the actual playing. They always sound great -- it's just that forces sometimes seem to work against them out here.

For proof, ardent admirers will automatically point to their long-awaited reunion at Coachella 2007, two years after Hester's suicide stunned the band back into action. Crowded House, mistakenly placed on the main stage on the most ill-fitting (read: heaviest) day of the fest, soldiered on valiantly despite being taunted and heckled by overzealous nitwits packed in close to the stage eagerly awaiting a far more ballyhooed return, the resurrection of Rage Against the Machine. The rebuilt House played remarkably well under the circumstances that day – but what people remember most is that Finn got nailed by a water bottle not long into the signature song “Don't Dream It's Over.” The set never fully recovered its momentum.

Of course, that's an extreme example of how things can and do go wrong at Crowded House gigs on the West Coast. Friday night at a mostly full Club Nokia, on the other hand, the primary glitch was merely a faulty set of guitar pedals that stopped working two songs in, just after a suitably moody rendition of “I Feel Possessed” and a dynamic run through the shiny single “Saturday Sun,” from the group's sixth sharp album, Intriguer.

Witty Finn (above), always quick on his toes, simply covered the gap with an improvised ditty about how his road crew methodically made repairs, going on so long that drummer Matt Sherrod started stirring the whooshing electro silliness of it all via digitized groove. Yet, thankfully, the moment hardly spoiled the performance, which ultimately rose to peaks of instinct and sophistication like I've never seen Crowded House reach.